Psychological Disability
Why is it important not to draw conclusions about psychological disabilities based on your observations of a student in the classroom? Explain.
@Kate We offer a free counseling service for our students, too. It also offers useful information about life issues for all students. We have found when students participate, they are more likely to use the service when they are facing some type of true crisis/distress.
It is very common for our students to open up to us. I feel that it is also important to have resources available for the student when the instructor feels that they are "in over their head". It is OK to listen, but we have to be careful when it comes to giving advice. Our school has student services team that is equipped with the proper information for these scenarios. We also offer 2-3 free visits to a local psychologist per student per "issue" if the student is willing to accept the offer.
I think it is important to remember as an instructor it is not our job to judge or determine what is "wrong" with a student. It is our job to teach our students, no matter what the disability!! Most of us are not qualified to make a conclusion about the student!!
Sometimes what an instructor observes may be just a temporary situation and not indicative of a permanent condition. Students can be in broken relationships, housing crisis, child care issues. Tread lightly on finding out too much, even volunteered info.
Thank you. Instructors should not begin to diagnose but, like you write, observations are not useless. In teaching, I have discovered lots of students confide a great deal of personal information to instructors both in writing and verbally. Some have written about anxiety, abusive relationships, poverty, legal predicaments, "ghosts" from the past and so on. All of these can be detriments to becoming successful and could possibly be shared to the qualified professional may be helpful. Confidential info must be protected, though, and not shared around the office cooler.
The biggest reason is first you should find out in private what the student is going through. I have no idea where or what has happened to them, sometimes the circumstance dictates there performance.
The thing about psychological disabilities is that they don't impact everyone in the same way. It is best not to assume; a better plan is to ask how you can be of assistance, if any.
PTSD is a popular topic when it comes to psychological disabilities. Most people have some form of PTSD, but they don't know it.
A student's outward behave is not a good predictor of one's psychological condition. I believe an outward display only indicates that something is bothering the individual. It is a good practice to communication one's concerns one-on-one or seek professional advice if necessary. Like the saying goes..."you can't judge a book by it's cover".
Students psychological background in many cases is complex and can involve multiple components that can cause them to behave differently in a classroom setting. They could be shy, attention seekers, etc. So drawing a conclusion to a psychological disability based on just classroom observation would be incorrect at best. It is like the preverbial saying judging a book by its cover.
Well as an instructor I know that I am not to label and or diagnose a student as being disable ,that’s not my job .My job is to teach all the students the subject matter of the course regardless if the student is disable or not .
We do not want to make our preconceived ideas about the student's abilities to cloud our judgment or negatively influence achievement.
Instructors/Professors are not fully trained, educated, or equipped with skills set to "diagnose" any disabilities unless they are medical professional or doctor of that specific specialty. Therefore, the instructors' conclusions are NOT reliable and lacking the truth but are not totally useless either.
Only educated, trained, qualified and licensed medical/psychological professionals of their respective field of specialty can make the determinations, conclusions and or diagnoses.
Observations and sharing of our students' behaviors (as allowed by law and and existing institutional policies)to qualified medical and psychological providers may facilitate the diagnosis, treatment, recovery and access to adaptive tools and "reasonable accomodations" programs available to an individual student at a given educational institution.
I think as instructors/professors most of are not doctors that can diagnose students with disabilities. Having said that we cannot and should not alienate students t least in our minds based on their indifferences with the "normal" students.
Enrique,
This is fantastic to hear. I'm so glad that your institution has been proactive in educating it's faculty on such a common disability.
Sarah Smoger
Jim,
We are not mind readers, right! It's important for student's with disabilities to learn self-advocacy skills. This will not only benefit them as students, but will be an important skill as they enter the workforce.
Sarah Smoger
Kate,
Exactly. No one diagnosis or disability creates the exact same functional limitations or to the same degree. Each student should be looked at on a case-by-case basis and accommodations should be determined accordingly.
Sarah Smoger
At our college we have experience a surge in military personnel going through the phase of career change. Since it was acknowledge that the possibility of having PTSD is a possibility the school arrange for a military psychologist to come and do a lecture on the reasons and symptoms this particulars students my show. It was of great help in helping us as instructors identify this situations and how to best handle it without interfering with the regular instruction.
Having a spouse who was employed in the mental health field has helped me understand that students that have a disability do not want to be treated any different then other students. That enables me to look beyond what I see in a students' disability and treat them the same way I treat everyone else. I believe if they want or need any special treatment they will inform me.
When dealing with students who have a psychological disability, it is important to remember that each student is an individual. At our school we often deal with students suffering from PTSD. We know that each one of the them has a different life experience and it is important to respect taht.
